CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai is the place to be if you like to write and share Japanese poetry forms like haiku, choka and tanka. It’s a warmhearted family of haiku poets created by Chèvrefeuille, a Dutch haiku poet. Japanese poetry is the poetry of nature and it gives an impression of a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. ++ ALL WORKS PUBLISHED ARE COPYRIGHTED AND THE RIGHTS BELONG TO THE AUTHORS ++ !!! Anonymous comments will be seen as SPAM !!!

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

I love to give you all an update on our new exclusive CDHK E-book especially created for the holidays. For this new E-book I have chosen a title to work with "Christmas Stockings", because this CDHK E-book is a gift for you all who participate here at CDHK and I am so glad that you have already emailed me several wonderful submissions, however ... there is still room for more contributions to this E-book. There will not be a selection or something, because I love to give you all a stage to publish. So if you not have emailed your contribution to this exclusive CDHK E-book than please feel free to do that.

You can email your contribution to our emailaddress: carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com Please write "holidays e-book" in the subject line. I am looking forward to all of your wonderful contributions.

I have started already with the creation of this CDHK E-book, of course it's all in very early form, but I think this exclusive CDHK e-book will be a joy to read and I hope ... not only for this time of year.

Transformation ... it's something we have seen here several times, it's a kind of path to find your inner truth, your inner beauty or your inner love. And that's the main theme in "Brida" another beautiful novel by Paulo Coelho. "Brida" was published in 1990 and it became a very famous novel within the "wiccan" community all around the world, because the "wiccan" believe (the "religion" of nature, like e.g. Shinto) is were this novel is about.
After "The Alchemist", the first novel I read by Coelho, I read "Brida" and again I was caught by the beauty of the story, a story that was so close to my life. As a haiku poet I am living with nature, I feel one with nature and I know that you, my dear Haijin, have that same feeling, that same connection with nature around us. Nature is the main theme of haiku (and other Japanese poetry).

The above image gives the heart of Wiccan ... and that's what Brida is seeking for in this novel by Paulo Coelho. Let me give you first a short overview of this novel.

Brida is the story of a beautiful young Irish girl and her quest for knowledge. She finds a hermit mage who teaches her to overcome fear and a witch who teaches her how to dance to the hidden music of the world. They see in her a gift, but must let her make her own voyage of discovery. As Brida seeks her destiny, she struggles to find a balance between her relationships and her desire to transform herself. The story makes reference to catharism and is woven around marrying the art of witchcraft to contemporary life. (Source: Wikipedia)

[...] "She had met people who had lost the glow of being alive because they could no longer fight against loneliness and had ended up becoming addicted to it. They were, for most part, people who believed the world to be an undignified, inglorious place, and who spent their evenings and nights talking on and on about the mistakes others had made. They were people whom solitude had made into judges of the world, whose verdicts were scattered to the four winds for whoever cared to listen." [...](Source: Brida by Paulo Coelho)

Well ... I hope that this post will inspire you ... it was a joy to create this episode, because it's so close to my believes.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until December 20th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. Have fun!

If you would like to be published in cdhk's exclusive "holidays" e-book. Than you can send your "holidays" Japanese poem like haiku or tanka to
carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com Please write "holidays e-book" in the subject line.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

What a wonderful month this is. As you all know I love the novels written by Paulo Coelho. I have read almost all his novels, but the novel from which the quote for today comes I haven't read yet, but of course I intend to do that without a doubt. The novel from which I extracted the quote is titled "The Valkyries" and was published back in 1992. At that time I hadn't heard from Paulo Coelho.
The love for his novels came as I read the special edition of "The Alchemist" back in 2013, that year "The Alchemist" saw a 25th anniversary edition in an awesome beauty. I was caught by the beauty of that story and became addicted to this author. So in a way you can see this month as a kind of tribute to the beauty of Paulo Coelho's novels.

The book is autobiographical, but told from the third person. It deals with the exorcism of personal demons and discovering one's strength. It also deals with relationships among people, in this case, Paulo and his wife. Together with her, he embarks on a journey through the soaring heat of the Mojave desert. During the 40 days journey, surrounded by doubts and temptations and entering their innermost conflicts and questions, they met the valkyries, strange warrior women. (Source: Wikipedia)

Before I share the quote for today I also love to share a piece of Wagner's composition "The Valkyries" (Die Walkure):

An awesome piece of music. In a way this music by Wagner shows the beauty of "The Valkyries" as written by Paulo Coelho in which a group of women on motorbikes is playing a role. Coelho and his wife meet them in the Mojave desert.

There is another religious or spiritual connection with The Bible, because as you maybe know Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil for 40 days in the desert. Paulo and his wife are in the Mojave desert for 40 days ... no coincedence of course, because Coelho uses often religious or spiritual ideas in his novels. That's the reason why I am such a big fan of his novels ... I am a spiritual person and through the novels of Coelho I learned more and more about spirituality or better said ... my spirituality.

Okay ... back to our inspirational quote for today taken from "The Valkyries":

[...] "There is no sin but the lack of love, have courage, be capable of loving, even if love appears to be a treacherous and terrible thing. Be happy in love. Be joyful in victory. Follow the dictates of your heart." [...] (Source: The Valkyries by Paulo Coelho)

Monday, December 11, 2017

Today I have chosen a quote from a novel by Paulo Coelho that surprised me like "Eleven Minutes" did. In 2014 Paulo Coelho's new novel "Adultery" was released.

Adultery, is a story of a woman who is faced with an inevitable, life-altering choice when she chooses to break the monotony of her life. Linda is in her thirties and is facing a crisis mentally and emotionally. She begins to question the void that was growing in her, the mundane, predictable days of her life. Although her life seemed perfect in everybody's eyes a contented marriage, adorable children and a successful career - she feels a keen sense of emptiness and displeasure. But it all drastically changes when she meets a prosperous politician who happens to be her high-school boyfriend from years ago. As Linda revives the passion that was absent in her life, she would have to make a life-altering choice.

Adultery reads like a river, the story caught me immediately, not because of the theme, but because of the way Paulo Coelho describes the theme in a very nice way with a kind of love that no one would expect in a story about adultery. I read this novel only once, but I read it in one day ... the story really grabbed me. It's a story to which everyone can relate I think, not because of the adultery, but because of the hidden story ... the loss of romance, sensuality and sexuality in a marriage.

Adultery ... an amazing story written by Paulo Coelho. "Adultery" a novel about true love I would say and I think that this quote will inspire you as it did me.

[...] “Let yourself get carried away by the night from time to time. Look up at the stars and try to get drunk on the sense of infinity. The night, with all its charms, is also a path to enlightenment. Just as a dark well has thirst-quenching water at its bottom, the night, whose mystery brings us closer to the mystery of God, has a flame capable of enkindling our soul hidden in its shadows.” [...](Source: Adultery by Paulo Coelho)

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. I hope you all have had a nice weekend. Here in The Netherlands we had almost the whole weekend heavy snow fall, so the world around me has become white. It's an awesome sight, because it has been a while that we had that much snow.

This month we are finding our inspiration in the novels by Paulo Coelho. And today I have a wonderful quote from his novel "The Witch Of Portobello", one of his most beloved novels. I read "The Witch ..." several times and every time again I read new things.

The quote for today points to a skill which we maybe know ... calligraphy. In ancient Japan calligraphy was a high art and all the classical haiku poets used it. The leading character of "The Witch ..." learns this art in the middle of the desert.

Of course the quote to use I will not give you as a calligraphy. Here is the quote for your inspiration:

[...] "Naturally, if she respected the brush that she used, she would realize that in order to learn to write she must cultivate serenity and elegance. And serenity comes from the heart." [...] (Source: The Witch of Portobello - Paulo Coelho)

And here is my response, I wasn't inspired, so I dived into my archives:

migratingback in time again I writewith a quill penscreeching paperthe poet writes his poems

Friday, December 8, 2017

I would
love to create a special CDHK E-book for the holidays, so I have a call for
submissions for you. Send your haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form
themed "holidays" (Christmas, New Year) to our Haiku Kai email-address:
carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com Please write "ebook holidays" in the
subject line.

You can
submit your poem(s) until December 19th 10:00 PM (CET).I am
looking forward to all of your wonderful poems themed "holidays".

CARPE DIEM's HAIKU FAMILY

Follow by Email

BASHO REVISITED

Google+ Followers

try it our QR-code

Highlight

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI FORUM

conversation ? questions? visit our forum.

CARPE DIEM ON FACEBOOK

My Visitors

Tribute To Jane Reichhold, a new CDHK Tumblr

Feel free to visit

IMPROMPTU VERSE

Sometimes a haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form comes in mind just in one eye-blink. Those poems I call Impromptu-verses. Here I will publish these Impromptu-verses. Today's Impromptu verse: (10)

VISIT ALSO

I am a member of

VISIT MY HOME WEBLOG

CARPE DIEM ON

PINTEREST

WORDPRESS WEBLOG

Chèvrefeuille's Haiku

NOW ONLINE

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Academy

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI SPECIAL

special features

Publishing Policy

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Carpe Diem is the place to be if you like to write and share haiku (or another Japanese poetry form like e.g. tanka). It's a family of haiku loving poets.Japanese poetry is known as the impression of a short moment, say a heartbeat or an eye-blink, in which nature plays an important role.It's free to participate in Carpe Diem. By participating in Carpe Diem, you agree with the use of your work in the exclusive e-book series of Carpe Diem.Of course your work will be credited as Carpe Diem always does. However all the texts and works at Carpe Diem are copyrighted and the rights belong to the authors.

March 20th 2016

Chèvrefeuille, your host

PS. Of course it is possible that you don't want to have your work published in our exclusive series of CDHK e-books. Please let me know that by sending an e-mail to our e-mail address carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com